Debt Settlement Raleigh: Not a Viable Solution

Debt settlement services in Raleigh advertise themselves as viable ways to stop credit cards from collecting on debt.

As the New York Times recently reported, debt settlement services are almost always ineffective and a waste of money. That’s because they have very little or no bargaining power over a credit card company.

If you want to negotiate with a credit card, save your money and do it yourself. Debt settlement services are almost never lawyers. They have no ability to sue on your behalf to make credit companies or debt collectors stop harassing you.

If you do have unsecured debt, there are legal ways for you to stop collections and stop harassment, but these involve hiring a lawyer – either a bankruptcy lawyer Raleigh or a debt defense lawyer Raleigh – who has the legal authority to represent you to the credit card companies, and to prevent them from continuing collections.

In some cases, bankruptcy is the answer. A bankruptcy does not need to be frightening, and in many cases, a bankruptcy will improve your credit because will resolve debt-to-income problems that you may currently have.

In other cases, especially if you are being harassed by a debt collection agency, you need a debt defense lawyer Raleigh who will defend you by using the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or the state Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. These acts give you legal remedies to sue and receive money from debt collectors if they’ve violated the law or your rights by harassing you in the collections process.

My advice is to avoid debt settlement Raleigh or debt settlement services Raleigh. They very rarely actually help, and can quite frequently make your problem worse.